SIREN
OF DOOM

The Story of Delilah Fails

Delilah Fails appears to have been a true sociopath, rare
among her gender. She used her "charms" and talents to exploit
others, and appeared to have little conscience about the wreckage she left
behind. In prison parlance, she was a “heat wave.”Wherever she went, trouble wasn’t far
behind.Ask John Lewis, who was sent to
the Anamosa Penitentiary in 1893 for seducing the sexually precocious 17-year
old.Ask any number of local Waverly
men who carried on affairs with the voluptuous, attractive young woman, and
found themselves in divorce court shortly thereafter.

In her rambling confession to the August 23, 1897 murder,
22-year old Delilah claimed that the much-older Kern had been “using” her
sexually since she was 13 years of age, that they had intercourse often, and
that the married Kern became extremely possessive of her.He spread vicious lies around town about
her, she said, and managed to thwart any of her attempts to break free of
him.When Delilah started an affair
with Kern’s 18-year old son, Will, and they talked of marriage, the elder Kern
reportedly became jealous of his own son.He wanted Delilah “all to himself,” according to one account, and
refused to allow the marriage.

Delilah admitted that it was her idea to kill Jerome Kern,
and she found a willing accomplice in young Will, who apparently had few qualms
about killing his father.On the day of
the murder, the elder Kern was lured into a local woods with the promise of
Delilah’s sexual favors; instead, he received three bullets to the back from
Delilah’s borrowed revolver, after which she and Will poured kerosene over the
body and set it alight.The burned body
was found the following day.Delilah
made efforts to cast suspicion elsewhere, planting a phony note in Jerome’s
jacket pocket, making it appear that Jerome feared for his life from John
Lewis.No matter – the sheriff and
prosecutor figured things out and Will readily confessed.Delilah quickly followed suit.She concluded her written confession thus:

“Down there in the woods when I
killed Jerome, he was not forcing or trying to force me, but I had made up my
mind to kill him.When I first began to
think of killing Jerome I began to pray to God to give me strength to carry
this through and kill [him], if it was his will, and after I did I prayed that
he forgive me and I thought he had forgiven me, because I didn’t keep thinking
of it.I don’t know, I think I was born
to do all this.”

Delilah was convicted of Murder and sentenced to 20 years.
Will received 12.They shared a train
ride to Anamosa on December 13, 1897.According to the newspapers, the curious lined up along the train route,
trying to catch a glimpse of the suddenly-famous murderess.

Will Kern completed his sentence in March 1905 and lived out
the rest of his life in quiet obscurity, working as a tailor.He married and had several children, and
there is no evidence he ever committed another crime.He died in 1953.

Delilah’s life continued to be eventful.She apparently fell in love with another
convict while at Anamosa, one Frank Bunn, also known as James L. Firman.After his release from prison he took up
residence in the Fails home in Waverly, where he petitioned loudly for
Delilah’s release.He made quite a
nuisance of himself around town, was arrested on a weapons charge, and was
eventually run out of town.

When Delilah was paroled in 1904, she took a job in Cedar
Rapids as a domestic for a prominent family.When her employer came home one evening he found Delilah bound and
gagged, the “victim” of an apparent robbery.Numerous items of value were missing.Police were suspicious, however, and after intense interrogation, Delilah
admitted she had staged the robbery, and led authorities to the stolen goods.Frank Bunn was in the Cedar Rapids area at
the time, and police figured he was involved in the “robbery,” but Delilah
refused to implicate him.It is
noteworthy that Delilah married Bunn around this time.

Delilah’s parole was revoked and she was returned to the
Penitentiary to finish her sentence.She dischargedMay 8, 1909 and
returned to her father’s home in Waverly.

A few months later Delilah, while picking wild grapes in a
farm pasture, was attacked by a bull.Her dog managed to occupy the bull while Delilah crawled through a fence
to safety.As the Bremer County
Independent reported, “When it isn’t one thing it’s another, and Delilah
seems to get her share of them.”

When she was 41 years old, in 1916, Delilah’s husband, the
ex-con James Firman, sued one Henry Woodford for $5500 “for the alienation of
his wife’s affections.”The suit
claimed that the couple had been happily married until Delilah went to work for
Woodford and committed “many indiscretions” with him, “all brought about by
Woodford’s unusual control over her.”Woodford was a wealthy man, and a cynic might speculate that Delilah’s
“indiscretions” were calculated to get a share of that wealth.If so, she succeeded, as Woodford provided
her with $50,000 in property upon his death.

In 1917, Delilah married L.D. Roberts, a man of modest means
and ten years her senior.In 1925 she
deserted him.In his 1931 divorce
petition, Mr. Roberts stated that Delilah had refused his numerous requests to
move back in with him, and that he wanted an alimony judgment of $18,000
rendered against her.Exactly how the
suit turned out is unknown.

Delilah died in Waverly in 1950.She had apparently reverted back to her first married name, as
her obituary calls her “Nellie Firman.”Surviving her was one son, John Lewis.